I had a great breakfast (eggs, toast, Greek yogurt, blueberries and strawberries), caught up on some email, did a few chores, then will get my Yoga Fix done for the day. It’s not quite lunch time here, and the rain is pounding down outside. All around good times…

I’ve now lost 7.5 lbs in total. I’ll post my weight and measurements tomorrow for the “final” results.

I really like the meal plan and the workouts. Never have I been so consistent in working out than with this program. Even when I was training for my 25K run, I would fudge days and put it off. With the 21 Day Fix, I can say to myself “it’s only 30 minutes” and it can be done at home. No driving, no packing up stuff, no changing/showering at the gym…it’s been so easy to get it done.

And with that, I feel pretty accomplished. It’s almost easy to succeed, if that makes sense. You are totally set up for success with the way the program is organized.

Here are some food pix of meals I’ve made with the 21 Day Fix portioning. Like I’ve said before, there are LOTS of food options, but I’m a creature of habit and often eat the same things over and over…

Weighing in with 2.5 lbs lost. Crazy, right? In three days? That’s the unofficial stance so far. That could’ve just been the flushing of the salt, toxins, or whatever. Stay tuned for further weight updates.

I accidentally skewed yesterday’s meals to leave me with 3 green boxes, 2 red and a teaspoon for dinner. At first, I was at a loss. That’s a lot of GREEN in one sitting. So, I ended up having a massive salad and using extra virgin olive oil and a spice rub (“free”) on the accompanying steak. Not too shabby!

The difference between my meal and the family’s that night was their big, juicy Caesar salad (croutons! parm! bacon!) to go with the steak. Their dessert was a half cup of Greek yogurt, raspberries and a biscuit.

I’m going to try as much as possible to align what I’m eating with what I prepare for my husband and the boys. Because making two meals is silly. And going to the grocery store and buying a cartload of good stuff supplemented by boxed cereal, frozen fries, goldfish crackers, fatty dressings/dips etc. is simply not logical nor cool nor cheap. Why would I purposely feed junk to the people I love?

Pushback? Yep! It takes a while to implement change like that. They all have voices…they know what they like and aren’t afraid to make it clear when they DON’T like something. So, I’m weaning them off a few things and adding in better choices, sneaky-like. I’m also doing some plating/portioning in the kitchen before the food hits the table, so there’s no free for all on say, the desserts or the higher-calorie mashed potatoes. This way, we can all be a little healthier.

As for the DVDs with trainer Autumn Calabrese, it’s all good. Some exercises really do push my comfort level, while other ones are juuuust right enough to make me feel I’m getting it. I’m using 5lbs as my light weights and 10 lbs as my heavy weights. I also have ankle weights, but have not been badass enough to wear those yet. I do wake up in the morning with overall muscle soreness, but not to the point where it’s painful – just a reminder that I found some new muscles the day before!

I will say that the 30 minute workouts don’t give a lot of time to stretch at the end. Add in your own stretching post-workout to make sure everything is good in muscle-ville.

Yep – I kinda am a routine girl. Not a lot changing up really. The highlight of my day still is deciding what to put in the blue box. LOVE the blue box. Hummus? Cheese? Guac? Nuts? My entire meal day revolves around what goes in the blue box…

The FB challenge group has been great for food ideas, mind you. All sorts of stuff posted that I wouldn’t have ever considered. Might have to try a few new things over the next couple of days.

Was a great day overall. I do miss salt and sugar a bit…and that might rear it’s ugly head over the next week. Love my salt. Love. Salt. Didn’t realise it until it was gone.

Here is Day One in review…

“I don’t have time to exercise”

The food planning has been such an integral part of prepping for the 21 Day Fix, that I hadn’t given too much thought to the workouts. After all, our guru – Autumn Calabrese – makes it easy with all these bite-sized, intense regimes that we’ll do every day for the next 21 days. The daily workouts are only 30 minutes. 30 minutes. That’s a sitcom. That’s a casserole in the oven. That’s a “I’m just gonna check my Facebook.”

I figured the only way for me to complete the workouts would be to get it out of the way first thing in the morning. If I leave it to the evening, I can find 101 reasons NOT to do it. So, awake at 5:00 but finally rolling out at 5:20 am, I donned workout clothes, and pushed PLAY. Sweat for the whole 30 minutes and kicked back a litre of water. Done like dinner. Off like a prom dress. You get it.

“I’m not sure I can do these kinds of workouts”

Being day one, and a Monday, my intro to Autumn Calabrese was with the Total Body Cardio Fix. The 21 Day Fix comes with exact instructions of which workouts to do each day. And yep – even the warm up winded me. We did a whole whack of cardio oriented sets accompanied by weights – your choice of heavy, light or none.

But the bestest ever part? The workouts do have a modifier – a lovely lady named Kat. Kat does all the same exercises but provides a modified version of the moves. Whether you’ve got an injury, hangover, medical restriction or are just not up to the full movement, this “modifier” is outrageously helpful.

I’m really proud to say that I didn’t need to follow Kat for the majority of the workout, but there were a couple of times I gratefully adjusted my movements. And one time I just looked at the screen and was like, whhaaaa? The “Surrender” set threw me completely. WAY harder than it looked and I put a towel under my knees to cushion them. My knees already make a delightful grinding sound when I go up stairs, so I’m always cautious.

Just a note: I have all sorts of participants in my challenge group, and those who are careful when it comes to anything high impact include someone with a previous injury, someone 65+, and someone over 200 lbs. I’ll let you know how everyone does.

I love that there is a countdown clock on the screen for both the sets and for the whole 30 minutes. So, when you think you’re gonna die, you can check how much longer you’ve gotta hold on. Maybe because it was 5:30 in the morning and sleepy, but this workout seemed to go really quickly.

“I’m going to be hungry”

I chased the workout with strawberry Shakeology (water and ice). Normally I dress up my Shakeology so much you’d never recognize it: almond milk, frozen fruit, etc. Today – straight up ice and water. I’m saving my fruit to eat, not to drink on this program.

For all my “plan your meals!” and “shop ahead!” mantra-ing, I totally didn’t write a thing down. It was all floating around in my head, and by 6:30 am I was shoveling food into the coloured boxes to measure it, then tossing it in a travel container to take to work. My lunch bag was truck stop impressive in size. I did feel like I was eating all day, mind you. I’ve never been a morning/afternoon snack person at all so the constant food intake may take a bit to get used to. The only time I started to get hungry was on the way home from work.

Right now I feel great. Might be a bit achy tomorrow – haha. The first day of school is always fun…